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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
It’s a fine book and I liked the changes in perspective. Really good world building and character interactions but I felt like things sped through the mystery just a bit. Too many times I felt like we skipped over interesting conversations or what could have been an interesting back and forth just got blurted out (did not like that last interaction between Kitt and Della).
Overall, heartfelt and good world/characters. Just wish it was the sum of its parts.
Overall, heartfelt and good world/characters. Just wish it was the sum of its parts.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Great Mystery with a hint of Mice and men and not the Lenny killing an animal or the wife part but just a mystery that takes place in the late 60’s with sweet, mentally challenged, 16 year old boy named V.J “Abit” who was a great friend and coworker to the MFC Della, and a big help in solving the mystery that took place in their small town.
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A LIFE FOR A LIFE
by Lynda McDaniel
While Della is out hiking with her dog, Jake, she discovers the body of a young woman. Deemed a suicide, Della isn't so sure. Investigating is in her blood and Della can't help but start looking into things...and finding some truths desperate to stay hidden.
A LIFE FOR A LIFE is a character driven novel set in a small town in North Carolina in the mid 1980s. What makes the story even more interesting is that we learn about it from two characters, Della, a former Washington DC journalist who bought a local country store, and Abit a teenage boy who lives next door who most view as "challenged". The two offer their points of view in alternating chapters.While differing points of view can be distracting, McDaniel handles this technique with panache. The points of view flow together creating a seamless story adding layers without confusion.
The action is slowly paced, but not slow moving. By doing this McDaniel creates a more atmospheric novel drawing on its Appalachian roots that is also more realistic. Solving a murder, especially that of an unknown woman in the 1980s, does not happen in a matter of days.
A LIFE FOR A LIFE is an engrossing novel that is ultimately about acceptance. It's a journey. As Della and Abit investigate the murder they discover truths about themselves and their community as well as how they are viewed and ultimately accepted. I highly recommend this mystery which resonates within its time and place.
FTC Disclosure – The publisher sent me a copy of this book in the hopes I would review it.
by Lynda McDaniel
While Della is out hiking with her dog, Jake, she discovers the body of a young woman. Deemed a suicide, Della isn't so sure. Investigating is in her blood and Della can't help but start looking into things...and finding some truths desperate to stay hidden.
A LIFE FOR A LIFE is a character driven novel set in a small town in North Carolina in the mid 1980s. What makes the story even more interesting is that we learn about it from two characters, Della, a former Washington DC journalist who bought a local country store, and Abit a teenage boy who lives next door who most view as "challenged". The two offer their points of view in alternating chapters.While differing points of view can be distracting, McDaniel handles this technique with panache. The points of view flow together creating a seamless story adding layers without confusion.
The action is slowly paced, but not slow moving. By doing this McDaniel creates a more atmospheric novel drawing on its Appalachian roots that is also more realistic. Solving a murder, especially that of an unknown woman in the 1980s, does not happen in a matter of days.
A LIFE FOR A LIFE is an engrossing novel that is ultimately about acceptance. It's a journey. As Della and Abit investigate the murder they discover truths about themselves and their community as well as how they are viewed and ultimately accepted. I highly recommend this mystery which resonates within its time and place.
FTC Disclosure – The publisher sent me a copy of this book in the hopes I would review it.
I loved just about every part of this book!
Thank goodness there are people like Della to find the Abits of the world.
The setting was perfect, the characters were real, and the emotion ranged from sorrowful to joyful, from exuberance to heartbreaking.
I can’t wait to read more.
Thank goodness there are people like Della to find the Abits of the world.
The setting was perfect, the characters were real, and the emotion ranged from sorrowful to joyful, from exuberance to heartbreaking.
I can’t wait to read more.
I very rarely read books that are straight mysteries. The mysteries that I read have thriller and/or psychological elements in them. To be honest, I was getting a tad bored reading them. So when I got the invite to review A Life for a Life and read the synopsis, I decided that I needed a change. I am glad that I decided to read this book. It was a well-written mystery that kept me guessing to the end.
The plotline for A Life for a Life was very simple. Della, a former reporter now running a country store, stumbles across the body of a young girl. Everything points to suicide but Della thinks that there is more to the story. So she starts doing what she does best, investigating. With her sidekicks, Abit and Jake, Della digs into the case. What she discovers will change the lives of many people in her small town.
I liked Della. I liked how she dug into Lucy’s case and refused to let it go. She had so much thrown at her during the course of the book. She had opposition from the sheriff. Her dog was kidnapped (well, dognapped). Her store was vandalized and then set on fire. If it was any other person, they would have dropped the case. But not Della, it made her even more determined to find out why Lucy was killed.
Abit was one of the sweetest characters that I have read to date. He had a way of looking at the bright side of things that made me smile. He also had thick skin. He had to. I mean, look at his nickname, Abit. His father gave it to him while describing him as “a bit slow“. Even though he was slow, he had an amazing insight into the people in his town.
I thought that the mystery angle of the book was well written. I usually figure out who the murderer is by the middle of the book. Or at least the motive. Both were kept under wraps and not revealed until the end of the book. The red herrings that the author threw out were wonderful too. I did think that the murderer was the person that was arrested.
What I liked the most about this book was the small town feel that I got from it. I know, getting a small town feel from a book. I’m nuts. But, I do. The other thing is that I live in Western North Carolina. I live in the Foothills. Everything that was written in this book could have been where I live.
The end of A Life for a Life was excellent. Like I mentioned above, the author did a fantastic job of keeping the murderer and the motive under wraps. She also did a fantastic job of wrapping up the smaller storylines and merging them with the main one. There were no loose ends.
The plotline for A Life for a Life was very simple. Della, a former reporter now running a country store, stumbles across the body of a young girl. Everything points to suicide but Della thinks that there is more to the story. So she starts doing what she does best, investigating. With her sidekicks, Abit and Jake, Della digs into the case. What she discovers will change the lives of many people in her small town.
I liked Della. I liked how she dug into Lucy’s case and refused to let it go. She had so much thrown at her during the course of the book. She had opposition from the sheriff. Her dog was kidnapped (well, dognapped). Her store was vandalized and then set on fire. If it was any other person, they would have dropped the case. But not Della, it made her even more determined to find out why Lucy was killed.
Abit was one of the sweetest characters that I have read to date. He had a way of looking at the bright side of things that made me smile. He also had thick skin. He had to. I mean, look at his nickname, Abit. His father gave it to him while describing him as “a bit slow“. Even though he was slow, he had an amazing insight into the people in his town.
I thought that the mystery angle of the book was well written. I usually figure out who the murderer is by the middle of the book. Or at least the motive. Both were kept under wraps and not revealed until the end of the book. The red herrings that the author threw out were wonderful too. I did think that the murderer was the person that was arrested.
What I liked the most about this book was the small town feel that I got from it. I know, getting a small town feel from a book. I’m nuts. But, I do. The other thing is that I live in Western North Carolina. I live in the Foothills. Everything that was written in this book could have been where I live.
The end of A Life for a Life was excellent. Like I mentioned above, the author did a fantastic job of keeping the murderer and the motive under wraps. She also did a fantastic job of wrapping up the smaller storylines and merging them with the main one. There were no loose ends.
Disclaimer: I received a download of this book through a Goodreads Giveaway to facilitate writing this review. No other compensation was requested or offered.
There’s big doings down to Coburn’s Country Store. The new owner, Della Kincaid, used to be a big-city reporter in Washington, D.C. She’s fixed the place up nice, settling into life in this rural North Carolina community, and taken a sisterly interest in Abit, the learning-challenged boy who lives next door. She enjoys walks in the mountain forest with her dog Jake–or at least she did until she found a dead woman’s body.
No one knows who the woman is or how she got there, or who the man Della saw running from the scene is, but the sheriff is quick to rule the case a suicide. Della isn’t convinced, and starts snooping with the aid and/or obstruction of her quirky neighbors.
This is the first in a series of “Appalachian Mountain Mysteries” set in the 1980s, and featuring characters loosely based on the people the author met when she lived in North Carolina. (A sequel was published last month.)
Most of the chapters are narrated by Della, but there are also chapters from the viewpoint of Abit (birth name Vester), a teenager who has a learning disability his family isn’t fully understanding of. He’s large for his age, and sometimes his words come out wrong, so his father took him out of school. As a result, Abit spends most of his time hanging out on the porch of Coburn’s, observing. This habit comes in handy when there’s a murder to solve! (He also writes with a bit of dialect.)
The sheriff is intellectually lazy and impatient, so jumps to conclusions, and has a grudge against Della (his family owns a competing store) so doesn’t listen to any of her theories or evidence. In fairness, we later learn that the townsfolk have not bothered telling the sheriff important details about the case because they don’t like him. There’s a more sympathetic law enforcement officer, but he doesn’t have jurisdiction, and then becomes a suspect when certain information about his past surfaces.
Another important character is Della’s ex-husband Alex, also a reporter, but disgraced due to apparent plagarism and his drinking problem. He helps with the investigation, not least because he has access to the Lexis-Nexis database, big back in the 1980s.
The resolution to the case is mostly offstage, though savvy readers should be able to spot the culprit earlier.
Like a fair number of “cozy” mysteries, the book spends a lot of time detailing the delicious meals the characters are enjoying. I was a bit disappointed that there were no recipes in the back.
The characters are likable enough, but the book never really gripped me. Recommended to cozy mystery fans interested in the Appalachians atmosphere.
There’s big doings down to Coburn’s Country Store. The new owner, Della Kincaid, used to be a big-city reporter in Washington, D.C. She’s fixed the place up nice, settling into life in this rural North Carolina community, and taken a sisterly interest in Abit, the learning-challenged boy who lives next door. She enjoys walks in the mountain forest with her dog Jake–or at least she did until she found a dead woman’s body.
No one knows who the woman is or how she got there, or who the man Della saw running from the scene is, but the sheriff is quick to rule the case a suicide. Della isn’t convinced, and starts snooping with the aid and/or obstruction of her quirky neighbors.
This is the first in a series of “Appalachian Mountain Mysteries” set in the 1980s, and featuring characters loosely based on the people the author met when she lived in North Carolina. (A sequel was published last month.)
Most of the chapters are narrated by Della, but there are also chapters from the viewpoint of Abit (birth name Vester), a teenager who has a learning disability his family isn’t fully understanding of. He’s large for his age, and sometimes his words come out wrong, so his father took him out of school. As a result, Abit spends most of his time hanging out on the porch of Coburn’s, observing. This habit comes in handy when there’s a murder to solve! (He also writes with a bit of dialect.)
The sheriff is intellectually lazy and impatient, so jumps to conclusions, and has a grudge against Della (his family owns a competing store) so doesn’t listen to any of her theories or evidence. In fairness, we later learn that the townsfolk have not bothered telling the sheriff important details about the case because they don’t like him. There’s a more sympathetic law enforcement officer, but he doesn’t have jurisdiction, and then becomes a suspect when certain information about his past surfaces.
Another important character is Della’s ex-husband Alex, also a reporter, but disgraced due to apparent plagarism and his drinking problem. He helps with the investigation, not least because he has access to the Lexis-Nexis database, big back in the 1980s.
The resolution to the case is mostly offstage, though savvy readers should be able to spot the culprit earlier.
Like a fair number of “cozy” mysteries, the book spends a lot of time detailing the delicious meals the characters are enjoying. I was a bit disappointed that there were no recipes in the back.
The characters are likable enough, but the book never really gripped me. Recommended to cozy mystery fans interested in the Appalachians atmosphere.